Seoul, Reuters—Pope Francis sent an unprecedented message of
good will to China on Thursday before touching down in Seoul, but the first
papal trip to Asia in 15 years got off to a shaky start with the news some
Chinese had been barred from joining a youth celebration.

About half of more than 100 Chinese who had planned to
attend an Asian Youth Day event during the pope’s visit are unable to attend
due to “a complicated situation inside China,” Heo Young-yeop, spokesman for
the Committee for the PapalVisit
to Korea, told reporters.

He declined to give further details, citing their safety.
Another organizer, who declined to be identified, said some of the would-be
attendees had been arrested by Chinese authorities.
Beijing rejects Vatican authority over its Catholics.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to
requests for comments either on the Pope’s good will message or the Chinese who
were barred from attending the youth event.

As the pope’s plane approached South Korean airspace off the
west of the peninsula, North Korea test fired three short-range rockets into
the sea off its east coast, according to South Korea’s defense ministry.

The test site was hundreds of kilometers away from the
pope’s plane. North
Koreafired two more projectiles
from the same location early on Thursday afternoon.

The North has tested an unprecedented number of rockets and
missiles this year and has in recent weeks said the launches were in
retaliation to US-South Korean military exercises scheduled to start on Monday.

Pyongyang often stages such tests when rival South Korea is
in the global spotlight, in what is seen as a means to grab a share of the
attention.

The Argentine pope will spend five days in South Korea,
meeting some of the country’s five million Catholics on the first trip by a pontiff
to Asia since 1999, but much of the attention will be on the Vatican’s
relations with China.

“Upon entering Chinese air space, I extend best wishes to
your Excellency and your fellow citizens and I invoke the divine blessing of
peace and well-being upon the nation,” he said in a radio message to President
Xi Jinping.

It was the first time a pope had been allowed to fly over
China on Asian tours. His predecessor John Paul II had to avoid Chinese
airspace because of the fraught relations between Beijing and the Vatican.

The Vatican has had no formal relations with Chinasince shortly after the Communist Party took
power in 1949. The Catholic Churchin
China is divided into two communities: an “official” Church known as the
“Patriotic Association” answerable to the Party, and an underground Church that
swears allegiance only to the pope in Rome.

Ren Dahai, director of Jinde Charities, a Catholic charity
in China, said he had heard that some Chinese Catholics had been restricted
from traveling to South Korea and some had been allowed to go, and that the
matter had been a hot topic of discussion among Chinese Catholics in the last
two days.

Some of the travelers had been stopped at airports and
prevented from passing through customs, Ren said he had heard.

“This seems to me like it’s dependent on the local
government and the ideas and practices of local officials,” Ren told Reuters by
telephone from northern Hebei province, a Catholic stronghold.

“Some places will be stricter, while some will be looser.”

Anthony Lam, a senior researcher at the Holy Spirit Study
Centre in Hong
Kong, an organ of the Diocese of Hong Kong, said Chinese authorities
had warned more than 100 Chinese Catholics not to go to Seoul but said he was
not aware of any arrests.

“Local officials will tell them: ‘You should cooperate with
us and not go to Seoul this time. Otherwise, you would know the costs’,” Lam
said in a phone interview. He said he had the information from “different
channels” but declined to specify further.

“At least 10 days ago, or two weeks, the government started
lobbying them not to go and later on gave them warnings.”

North Korea had turned down an invitation from the South
Korean Catholic church for members of its state-run Korean Catholic Association
to attend a papal mass on Monday in Seoul, citing the start of the joint
US-South Korean military drills.

Francis called for efforts towards reconciliation and
stability on the Korean peninsula, divided since the 1950-53 Korean war, which
left millions of families separated.

“Korea’s quest for peace is a cause close to our hearts, for
it affects the stability of the entire area and indeed of our whole war-weary
world,” he said in remarks during an appearance with South Korean President
Park Geun-hye at the presidential Blue House.

Missionaries and aid groups have described a crackdown by
Chinese authorities on Christian charity groups near its border with North
Korea in recent months. The sweep along the frontier is believed to be aimed at
closing off support to North Koreans who flee persecution and poverty in their
homeland and illegally enter China before going on to other nations, usually
ending up in South Korea. China is North Korea’s main ally.

Catholic Church

Benedict XVI(Joseph Ratzinger) is the pope emeritus for the Roman Catholic Church.

James S. Crown is a trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank), the
president of the Henry Crown and Company, a director at the General
Dynamics Corporation, and a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago.

Lester Crown was a lifetime trustee at
the Aspen Institute (think tank), a director at the General Dynamics Corporation, is the
chairman for Henry Crown and Company,
and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Dennis Rodman was a player for the Chicago Bulls, and met with Kim Jong Un in 2013.

Kim Jong Un met with Dennis Rodman in 2013, and is the president of North
Korea.

James L. Jones Jr. was a director at the General Dynamics Corporation, the national
security adviser for the Barack Obama
administration, and is a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).

George A. Joulwan was a director at the General Dynamics Corporation, and is a
director at the Atlantic Council of the
United States (think tank).

Jon M. Huntsman Jr. is the chairman for the Atlantic Council of the United States
(think tank), and was the ambassador to China for the Barack Obama
administration.

Stuart E. Eizenstat is a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States
(think tank), and was a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development.

Stephen W. Bosworth is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and
was a U.S. ambassador for South Korea.

Donna S. Morea was a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and
the EVP for the CGI Group Inc.

CGI Group Inc. was the Obamacare contractor that developed Healthcare.gov web site.

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Sam on Bob Harden Show

Who Is Aristotle the Hun

"Aristotle the Hun" was the name given to me more than 30 years ago when a friend noticed that in spite of my intellect I was still an Iowa farm boy.

Rev. Sam Sewell, is Director of Best Self USA, a Pastoral Psychotherapist, serves on the faculty of Naples Community Hospital as an instructor for Clinical Pastoral Education, President of the Theological Center in Naples, a member of Mensa where he serves as Gifted Youth Coordinator, a U.S. Navy Veteran, and a Member of the Association For Intelligence Officers. He is a frequent commentator on mental health and religious issues.His award winning research on family issues is published in several languages. Member of Sigma Delta Chi Honor Society

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Quotation Gallery

"Though defensive violence will always be 'a sad necessity' in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men."- St. Augustine

"A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous, and then dismissed as trivial, until finally it becomes what everybody knows." -

William James

"This is the real task before us: to reassert our commitment as a nation to a law higher than our own, to renew our spiritual strength. Only by building a wall of such spiritual resolve can we, as a free people, hope to protect our own heritage and make it someday the birthright of all men." --Ronald Reagan

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."-- Edward Abbey

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."John Stuart Mill

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." ~~~George Washington

"I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University." William F. Buckley, Jr.

"Conservatives are enemies of the government. Liberals are enemies of the nation because they are not enemies of the government."Aristotle the Hun

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"Albert Einstein

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain." ANON

"That government is best which governs least."Thomas Paine

“A nation that substitutes emotion and empathy for rational thought will eventually digress into the Dark Ages,”Congressman Steve King (R-IA),

INTEGRITY: The highest courage is to dare to be ourself in the face of adversity. Choosing ethics over convenience and truth over popularity means there is never a wrong time to do the right thing.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.

The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

They may be more likely to go to Heaven for good intentions yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.~ C. S. Lewis

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." ANON

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The government is conspiring against the citizens. The citizens have pitchforks, torches, tea bags, tea parties, Grand Juries and the Constitution. The government doesn't stand a chance!

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The famous Chapter 16 from "I Fired My Doctors" thathas become a "best seller" as a separate publication.

"The stress management chapter alone is worth the price of the book.”
Selwyn Mills, PhD